Press release

Violinist
Rachel Lee will join the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra this weekend
for the final concerts of the 2012-13 M&T Bank classics series,
replacing violinist Chloe Hanslip, who became ill.

Lee
is a Chicago native who began her studies at the tender age of 4.
Before her 13th birthday, she amassed impressive performing credits,
such as an appearance at the 50th anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights at the United Nations and a performance
on the 1998 La Jolla Chamber Music Society's Prodigy Series - the
youngest person ever chosen to perform on that series. She has been a
student of Itzhak Perlman since the age of 10. She recently earned
her master's degree through a joint program with Harvard University
and the New England Conservatory of Music.

Lee
will perform Niccolo Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1. Paganini is
one of classical music's most compelling figures, with rumors that he
sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his preternatural talent
persisting to this day. This dazzling, brilliant concerto has not
been performed by the BPO since a teenaged Midori came to perform
with the orchestra in 1986. Also featured on the concert are Boito's
Prologue in Heaven from Mefistofele, Monteverdi's Overture to Orfeo,
and Pizetti's Venetian Rondo.

JoAnn
Falletta conducts the concerts taking place at 8 p.m. Saturday, June
1, and and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, June 2, at Kleinhans Music Hall, 3
Symphony Circle, Buffalo.